David Grene (13 April 1913 – 10 September 2002) was an Irish American professor of

classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classi ...

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the be ...

from 1937 until his death. He was a co-founder of the

Committee on Social Thought The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought is one of several PhD-granting committees at the University of Chicago. It was started in 1941 by historian John Ulric Nef along with economist Frank Knight, anthropologist Robert Redfield, and Universi ...

and is best known for his translations of

ancient Greek literature Ancient Greek literature is literature written in the Ancient Greek language from the earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire. The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period, are ...

Life

David Grene was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...

. He studied at Trinity College and was awarded his MA in 1936. His translations include

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known for ha ...

' '' Histories'',

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

' ''

Prometheus Bound ''Prometheus Bound'' ( grc, Προμηθεὺς Δεσμώτης, ''Promētheús Desmṓtēs'') is an Ancient Greek tragedy traditionally attributed to Aeschylus and thought to have been composed sometime between 479 BC and the terminus an ...

'' and ''

Seven Against Thebes The Seven against Thebes were seven champions in Greek mythology who made war on Thebes. They were chosen by Adrastus, the king of Argos, to be the captains of an Argive army whose purpose was to restore Oedipus' son Polynices to the Theban thr ...

'',

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

' ''

Oedipus Rex ''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...

'', ''

Electra Electra (; grc, Ήλέκτρα) is one of the most popular mythological characters in tragedies.Evans (1970), p. 79 She is the main character in two Greek tragedies, ''Electra'' by Sophocles and ''Electra'' by Euripides. She is also the central ...

'', and ''

Philoctetes Philoctetes ( grc, Φιλοκτήτης ''Philoktētēs''; English pronunciation: , stressed on the third syllable, ''-tet-''), or Philocthetes, according to Greek mythology, was the son of Poeas, king of Meliboea in Thessaly, and Demonas ...

'' and

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars at ...

's '' Hippolytus''. Grene was a close friend and colleague of philosopher

Allan Bloom Allan David Bloom (September 14, 1930 – October 7, 1992) was an American philosopher, classicist, and academician. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon, and Alexandre Kojève. He subsequently taught at Cornell Univ ...

and Nobel laureate

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only wr ...

. One of Grene's memoirs, ''Of Farming and Classics'', was published posthumously by the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

in 2006. From 1938 to 1961, he was married to Marjorie Glicksman Grene, the philosopher, who worked on the family farms, first in Illinois, and later in Ireland, as well as writing on

existentialism Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...

; she was the mother of Ruth and Nicholas Grene.

Family

Ruth Grene is a professor of plant physiology at

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six regi ...

. Nicholas Grene is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Trinity College Dublin, where his father took his first degree. After divorcing Marjorie, Grene married Ethel Weiss, and fathered the twins, Gregory Grene (lead singer and accordionist for Irish jig-punk band The Prodigals), and Andrew Grene, who was working for the United Nations when he died in the

2010 Haiti earthquake A catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest department, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's cap ...

; Andrew's body was confirmed by the Department of Foreign Affairs on 19 January 2010 to have been found in the wreckage of Haiti's destroyed UN building. Grene had been meeting with the head of the UN in Haiti at the time of his death. The body of Andrew Grene was brought home to

Belturbet Belturbet (; ) is a town in County Cavan, Ireland. It lies on the N3 road, around north of Cavan town and from Dublin. It is also located around south of the border with Northern Ireland, between the counties of Cavan and Fermanagh, and ...

, County Cavan on 30 January 2010 and buried beside his father after a funeral the following day. A charity, the Andrew Grene Foundation, has been set up in his memory.

Translations and edited works

*''Three Greek tragedies'',

's ''Prometheus bound'',

's Hippolytus, The University of Chicago Press, 1942. *''Greek Tragedies'', edited and translated by David Grene and

Richmond Lattimore Richmond Alexander Lattimore (May 6, 1906 – February 26, 1984) was an American poet and classicist known for his translations of the Greek classics, especially his versions of the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey''. Early life and career Born to David ...

, 3 volumes, works of

, and

, 1960. *''The Complete Greek Tragedies'', edited and translated by David Grene and

, 7 volumes, New York, Modern Library, 1960. *''Antigone'', edited and translated by David Grene and edited by Richmond Lattimore. With supplementary materials prepared by Walter James Miller, New York, Washington Square Press, 1970. *''The History'', by

, University of Chicago Press, 1987 *''The Oresteia'', by Aeschylus, translated by David Grene and Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, with introductions by David Grene, Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, and

Nicholas Rudall D. Nicholas Rudall (1940, in Llanelli, Wales – 19 June 2018) was a Welsh professor of classical languages and literature as well as humanities and Ancient Mediterranean history at the University of Chicago. He specialized in Greek drama, and t ...

, The University of Chicago Press, 1989. *''The Peloponnesian War'', by

Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scientif ...

, the complete Hobbes translation, with notes and a new introduction by David Grene, University of Chicago Press, 1989.

References

External links

University of Chicago News Release

Guide to the David Grene Papers 1948-2002
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grene, David 1913 births 2002 deaths Irish emigrants to the United States Translators to English Greek–English translators Irish classical scholars Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Classical scholars of the University of Chicago Scholars of ancient Greek literature 20th-century Irish translators Writers from Dublin (city)